TeX and LaTeX on Sharp Zaurus SL-C750/SL-C760

I've just bought Sharp Zaurus. I feel it convenient because I can run gcc on such a small body...

Nay, gcc doesn't matter. The most convenient is I can type documents even if I'm standing up in a train. I had a hard time typing on a notebook PC without sitting...

With a document-writing platform I want some TeX environment on it. Sometimes I've heard about TeX users on Zaurus, but I cannot obtain the environment.

For the time being I've created an image file of pTeX (ASCII version of Japanized TeX/LaTeX) that works on SL-C750/760. It may use memory up on SL-C700 and A/B series, but with some willpower you could manage it... May the force be with you.

Setting-up process is similar to dev-img. Because the image size is huge, it is unrealistic to be put on internal memory space. 

# mkdir /mnt/ptex
# mount -t cramfs -o loop /mnt/card/ptex312-gs707.img /mnt/ptex
$ TEXMF=/mnt/ptex/share/texmf
$ export TEXMF
$ PATH=/mnt/ptex/bin:$PATH

After these commands, you will be able to run platex, jbibtex, mendexk, dvips, dvipdfmx and so on (you may also run original tex/latex by running tex and latex). Try feeding any TeX file and enjoy displaying it with qpdf.

I suppressed kanji font embedding when ghostscript is called inside dvipdfmx. The image also includes kochi-alternative, but you shouldn't expect much on the output of ghostscript.

One future work is to display finer fonts on qpdf, but it seems that I can't take time for that.

* Addendum 2004/Jan/26: I'm happy that this sight is getting subtlely popular. However, this page is served over ADSL line, thus only narrow upload bandwidth is available. Please refrain from downloading by multiple connections by GetRight-like tools. It just causes troubles on my work without improving download speed. I moved the binary file onto another server. Though GetRight is still not welcomed, you may feel some speed-up on downloading. In case the link above is not working, try this slower link.

* Addendum 2004/Feb/25: I've got a report of "Binary not executable" error from a Cacko ROM user. It seems that some kernel option prohibits the binaries in the image file from running properly. I recommend to send a comment to Cacko developer - it will cause similar troubles on other binaries created by dev-img. If you claim it's me that should be changed, e-mail me.

* Addendum 2004/Feb/26: Another report says that links in the image are broken. Corners are cut in the image file; you must mount it exactly on /mnt/ptex.

* Addendum 2004/Mar/8: Both above cases was caused by a broken image file. If you have trouble mounting the image file, please try verifying checksum of the file by running md5sum at the command line.